United Way

Here are some numbers you wouldn’t have been able to find two years ago.

Last week, 3,428 people from the St. Louis Metro Area called the United Way’s 2-1-1 hotline, asking for help. One in four requested financial assistance to pay a utility bill. Nearly 500 callers asked for rent assistance, a bed in an emergency shelter, or another housing request. Another 114 needed help filing their taxes.

The United Way of Greater St. Louis is hoping to provide basic assistance to employees who lost work when businesses in Ferguson and Dellwood were looted or burned in November. But the agency is struggling to locate qualified individuals.

Displaced employees who qualify for the assistance would have had to have lost their jobs or had their hours significantly reduced, by more than 40 hours a week, said the organization's vice president of community response Regina Greer.

Some social service agencies in St. Louis will receive less funding from the United Way of Greater St. Louis this year despite a record annual campaign for the agency.

The United Way raised $73 million to fund programs in 2015, about $500,000 more than its stated goal. But $3.7 million of those dollars were directed to specific agencies or causes - more than 20 times the amount of restricted giving in 2014.